


Discord

by OneThreateningAcronym



Category: Paranatural (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen, Pnat Gem Au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-24
Updated: 2015-07-24
Packaged: 2018-04-11 01:06:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4415162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneThreateningAcronym/pseuds/OneThreateningAcronym
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Magnetite really couldn’t have been happier. Life was good. Everything was fine, and somehow he always knew it would be. His friends were amazing and they loved him. They were always hanging out, and sometimes even his mom got in on their shenanigans. Everything was fine. Nothing hurt. Nothing would ever hurt. So then why did something seem so wrong?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Discord

 

“ _Magnetiiiiiiiite!_ ”

 

The gem blinked, as if blinking out of a trance, and turned towards the sound of his name. Carnelian stared down her nose at him in a disapproving manner; hands on her hips and foot tapping away soundlessly. Funny, he thought absently, how she always teased him for his human mannerisms when it was clear she’d picked up on a few of them herself. The boy heaved a sigh and tried to focus on her with his full attention. It was difficult though. Something tugged at his mind and made it hard to concentrate; like that feeling you get when you know you’ve forgotten something and, despite your best efforts, can’t remember  _what_.

“Sorry, I zoned out for a second there,” he apologized, his voice odd in his own ears, “What were you saying?”

She stared at him for a second, annoyance barely giving way to worry in her eyes, “I was _asking_ if you read up any on that gem we were supposed to be hunting down today after school.”

Magnetite furrowed his brow, frowning in concentration, “Uh…yes?” he replied uncertainly, searching blindly through his memories for what she was talking about.

Carnelian stared at him blankly for about a second before quietly raising a hand to her face in exasperation. She collected herself and looked at the other gem, opening her mouth ready to deposit some grade-a exposition.

The automatic door behind them gave a quiet whir. Magnetite’s mind snapped back into focus at the sound and his mind cleared in an instant, a weight lifted. Without a second thought he turned towards the door, feeling the weight of his backpack on his shoulders and the friction of his shoes against the sidewalk in sharp clarity.

“Mom!” Magnetite exclaimed brightly, hurrying towards her as she exited the corner store they called home. The morning sun shimmered in her hair despite a fair coating of dust and metal shavings on it, complimented by the bags under her eyes and the cigarette in her mouth. Magnetite thought she looked beautiful anyways.

She grinned lazily at him, lifting her hand up to showcase what it held. It was a folder: red in color and filled to the brim with papers, “Forgetting something?” she asked, waving it back and forth in her hand.

“Oh snaps my math folder,” he realized quietly, taking it gratefully as she handed it to him. With movements that denoted practice he reached back, unzipped his bag and shoved the folder in with the rest of his school supplies without so much of a glance, asking as he went, “Kitchen table?”

“Coffee table,” she corrected fondly, flicking the brim of his hat so that it fell over his eyes, “Your dad almost used it for origami,” she glanced up and waved at Carnelian, “Mornin’ Carny.”

Carnelian smiled and waved back, “Good morning Maggy’s mom!”

Magnetite almost choked, a dark gray blush covering his cheeks as he swung on her, “I told you not to call me that!” he yelled, flailing a little in embarrassment. He tried to glare at her but, alas, he had not fixed his hat and the effect was lost. The gem boy settled for an indignant pout for the time being.

His mother laughed; a light, almost musical sound that carried on the wind. It was an infectious laugh and Magnetite couldn’t hide his own small smile, despite wanting to be mad. He fixed his hat and turned back to his mom, looking at the metal shavings in her hair. He knew for a fact that she’d been awake most of the night working on a project and would probably fall asleep before getting a shower in tonight.

“Hey, do you want me to, y’know…” he waved his hand vaguely towards her head, “ _Get_  those before I leave, or…?”

“Hm?” His mother hummed, craning her head a little as she looked upwards to where he gestured. She ran a hand through her hair and picked out one of the metal shavings. She looked at it for a moment, shrugged, and tossed it off to the side, “Nah, don’t worry about it kiddo. There’s only gonna be more of them to get later.

He looked at her uncertainly, “You sure?”

She rolled her eyes a bit and flicked his hat down again, “Yes, I’m sure. Now get going before you’re late for school,” she instructed, shooing him away with her hand.

Magnetite fixed his hat again and mimicked the eyeroll, “ _Fine_ ,” he sighed dramatically, sagging his shoulders like he’d just been dealt an unfavorable chore. He opened his mouth, a witty retort on his tongue about the hard life of a school going gem, but it died before it ever left his lips. In fact, all words suddenly seemed to fail him. Carnelian said something behind him, quiet and muffled, like cotton in his ears. His senses became hazy and the world became blurry.

His first thought was  _what is she wearing_? His second thought fell to the side before it was completely finished forming. Directly behind his mother, maybe a few feet back, floated a woman. Or at the very least that’s all Magnetite could assume. She was wearing what looked like a strange hybrid of pajamas and a suit, possibly with coattails, but it was hard to tellfrom where he stood. Any other defining features were obscured by bandages wrapped around her head, but ironically enough she was currently the only thing in focus. The only thing he  _could_ focus on.

And despite not being able to see her face, he had a sneaking suspicion she could see him perfectly fine.

Something moved in the corner of his vision and very abruptly reality rushed back into focus. He craned his head around his mother as she kissed the top of his head, trying to see the strange woman again. Carnelian chatted away nearby and he realized the bandaged woman had vanished. His mother laughed about something and gingerly put his hat back into place, and somewhere in his heart Magnetite felt deeply unsettled. He stood stock still as his mother offered one last wave before re-entering the corner store, saying the parental pleasantries like ‘have a good day!’ and ‘don’t get into too much trouble!’, but it all sounded somehow wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Something was  _wrong_ –

Carnelian placed a hand on his shoulder and leaned around to look at his face, “Magnetite?”

The boy felt himself instantly relax. Nothing was wrong. Why would anything be wrong? Where had that even come from?

He turned to look at Carnelian, and without missing a beat: “So that gem monster we’re fighting later. Malachite, right? Wasn’t there an Malachite mentioned in our history class at some point or something?”

Carnelian’s face broke out into a grin and she slung an arm around his shoulder, turning the both of them. The trek to school began, “Ah ha! So you  _DID_  do  _some_  research. As far as Fire Opal knows it shouldn’t be the same Malachite, but we should be on the lookout for similar abilities,” she explained casually. She talked most of the way to school, saying this and that and strayed away from the original topic of the mission. Magnetite was happy to let her talk and just listen.

Somehow, it felt like her voice was keeping him grounded the whole way to school.

 

* * *

 

Magnetite rolled his eyes, “Pyrite, we’ve had this conversation. We’re not fusing into Pyrrhotite just so you can go see some R-rated movie,” he deadpanned, flicking an eraser bit at him.

Across the table Iron Pyrite had the gall to look offended, “Ugh, you sound just like Isaac!” he whined, flopping down onto the carpet. He flailed, jostling the coffee table and nearly knocking off the Science Fair project that sat precariously on top of it, “How can you NOT wanna go see _Horrifying Situations 12: The Bat Returns_?! It’s a Halloween  _staple_ , man. Required yearly watching!”

“Because unlike some people I have actual taste in movies,” he responded plainly, not looking up as he scribbled something onto their notes.

“ _DON’T YOU IGNORE ME WHEN I’M TALKING TO YOU, MAX!”_

Magnite sighed heavily and scowled, “There’s no need to  _shout_ , geez,” he snapped, glaring up at the other gem, “Why don’t you just have Stephen pirate it or something if it’s such a big deal?”

Iron Pyrite sat up and scrunched his face at Magnetite in concentration, “Dude, what? I didn’t say anything.”

“You totally just yelled at me,” Magnetite stated very matter-of-factly, “ _Loudly_ ,” he added for annoyed emphasis.

“I totally did not,” Pyrite countered, frowning, “Didja hit your head or something?”

“Who’s doing what now?” Aquamarine asked, re-entering the living room with snacks piled in his arms.

“Pyrite’s yelling at me because I won’t fuse with him to go see some stupid movie,” Magnetite explained, shooting the fiery gem an annoyed glare.

“I am not!”

Aquamarine quirked an eyebrow at both of them, but stared mostly at Magnetite, “It must have been a really quiet yell,” he commented, walking over to take his place back at the coffee table. He set the snacks down carefully and fixed Magnetite with a glance, “I didn’t hear anything.”

Magnetite bristled in frustration, “How could you  _not_  have? He practically was screaming in my–”

“ _I SAID STOP! IGNORING!_ _ **ME**_ _!”_

A jolt went through Magnetite like he’d been shot. The world wavered and rippled before his eyes and in an instant his body felt like a distant, hazy memory of something he used to have. His ears rang like a fire alarm deep in his head screeching a warning. Panic rose in him like the tide, threatening to drown him, but he couldn’t move. He was hot and cold all at once like a fire was inches from his head, roaring yet not quite close enough to even keep him warm. Everything swam in his head as the ringing stopped and was replaced by incoherent, cacophonic  _yelling_.

“Max?”

The panic that threatened to drown him receded, replaced by a stream of calm that forced its way through the chaos. Everything fell away, bit by bit. The fire. The shock. The wrongness of everything before his very eyes. And things came back into focus. The bag of chips poking into his leg that Aquamarine had brought in with the rest of the snacks. The ticking of the clock on their living room wall. Iron Pyrite being an idiot.

“Maaaaaax,” his mom repeated, dragging his name out for emphasis.

Magnetite looked at her and felt calmer than he thought he might have ever felt before. Whatever the heck had just happened fell from his memory in an instant, and he curiously replied, “Yeah mom?”

“There’s someone on the phone asking for a Johnny?” she scanned the table, her eyes landing on Iron Pyrite with a knowing look, “Someone who wanted to remind him that he has dinner waiting at home?”

Iron Pyrite was out of their living room so quickly that Magnetite had to wonder if he had secondary powers that didn’t involve fire. Max’s mother chuckled and shook her head as Aquamarine gave an exasperated sigh.

“Speaking of dinner,” Magnetite’s mom began, giving Aquamarine a curious look, “Will you be staying? Or are you one of those gems that doesn’t like eating?”

Aquamarine smiled at her, the picture of politeness, “Oh, I wouldn’t want to impose…”

“Too late,” Magnetite coughed.

“Hey!” Aquamarine shot a glare at him.

Max's mother laughed and Magnetite couldn’t help but laugh with her, standing with Aquamarine as his mother started talking about what they were eating tonight. Magnetite felt light as a feather as he walked, unable to stop smiling.

Somehow, in that moment, everything seemed right in the world.

 

* * *

 

Fear nagged at him and for the life of him Magnetite couldn’t pinpoint  _why_.

The gem boy glared hatefully up the sky from where he safely stood beneath the protection of a bus stop. Buckets upon buckets of rain poured down and showed no inclination of stopping, if those dark, ominous clouds were anything to go by. Magnetite sighed and tried to shake his anxiety off, wishing this stupid bus stop had a bench. Fog rolled in from somewhere behind him and quietly he hoped that the sense of being watched was just his imagination.

“Pleasant weather we’re having, isn’t it?”

Her voice cut through pounding of the rain, rendering everything silent. Magnetite turned slowly, sluggishly, and fought against the desire to ignore what he’d just heard. He stared blankly at the woman with the bandaged head floating beside him for about three seconds before he took several frightened steps back.

“You!” he shouted, pointing his finger at her accusingly.

“Me,” she acknowledged, giving a slight wave, “So you do remember me. I was worried you might be in too deep to retain that much.”

Magnetite tensed, ready to bolt at any moment, but somehow her words struck a chord with him, “What?” he asked, confusion coloring his voice.

She tilted her head at him, as if judging what her next move should be, “You really don’t realize it, do you?” Her tone was pleasant, yet sharp. She sounded like she knew the answer to her own question, but was asking for his sake.

Magnetite relaxed, just a bit, and watched her warily, “Realize… realize what?”

Her next words hit him like a blunt object to the head:

“There’s someone else pulling at the strings around here.”

The pitter patter of rain against plastic assaulted his ears and Magnetite found himself terrifyingly alone at the bus stop again. If he had a heart it would have been pounding in his chest, but for the time being all he was left with was the urge to run,  _run, run and never come back_ –

“Ugh, finally, this stupid rain is letting up,” his mother dove in underneath the bus stop overhang, drenched to the bone with rain. In her arms were a few bags that Magnetite vaguely recognized to be the supplies for her next art commision. She smiled at him apologetically, “Sorry that took so long.”

“It’s… it’s fine,” he managed, the gem equivalent of adrenaline slowly fading out of his system. He adjusted his hat and looked away.

His mother frowned and took a step closer to him, kneeling down, “Hey, hey, don’t you do that hat thing with me,” she said, moving to gently move the hat away to look at her son’s face, “What’s the matter?”

He wanted to tell her. Desperately he wanted to tell her. Wanted her to confirm that nothing was wrong and everything was normal. His chest ached with the need for  _validation that everything was going be fine and that nothing was wrong._ But the words wouldn’t come out. His tongue laid heavy in his mouth like lead and his voice refused to cooperate.

He forced a smile onto his face, “Nothing. Just… tired. Haven’t been sleeping well recently,” he lied easily.

His mother shook her head a little at him, “This is probably some weird gem thing, huh?” she asked, plopping her hand fondly on top of his head, “C’mon, let’s get home so I can make dinner. Nothing promotes better sleep than tasty food.” she said with a smile.

Magnetite tried to match it to the best of his abilities. The bus pulled up to the bus stop quietly and the doors opened, offering another safe haven from the rain. He and his mother hurried on and grabbed seats towards the back, using a close by empty seat to hold his mother’s purchases of the day. His mother sat close by the window and he close next to her. The bus began rumbling forward and above them the clouds lightened up. Magnetite leaned against his mother listlessly who, obligingly, wrapped an arm around him and pulled him close.

In that moment, the only thing that felt real was the warmth of her hug.

 

* * *

 

“This is dumb,” Magnetite stated.

“Shush your face,” Emerald replied.

Snow drifted from the sky lazily, falling down to join the snow that had already blanketed Mayview. Magnetite wondered, not for the first time this afternoon, why he had let Emerald convince him to do this. He could think of several, several better ways of spending a snow day then hiding behind a huge mound of snow and waiting. And, of course, he was currently doing _none_ of those things.

“How much longer are we going to have to sit out here?” he grumbled, glaring at the vast, snowy landscape that spread out before him. Currently they were somewhere near the edge of Mayview; Magnetite had no idea where exactly, but Emerald had seemed confident that that was where they were.

“Should only be a little bit longer,” the green gem replied dismissively, poking his head over the top of the mound of snow, “I texted Carny, and she should be grabbing Aqua, so at some point they should be showing up.”

“At  _some_  point?”

“Patience isn’t one of your stronger qualities, is it?” Emerald asked, glancing sideways at his magnetic companion. Magnetite shot him a look and grumbled more under his breath. Emerald ignored him, “Is everything set?”

Magnetite looked to the large pile of snowballs sitting between the two of them, “As far as I can tell?”

Emerald turned to him with a manic grin, “Good, cuz I see someone.”

Magnetite started and scrambled to sit up, pulling himself over the mound to see what laid in the distance. He squinted through the snow as it began to come down heavier than before and, as he looked, three things slowly dawned on him.

 

  1. There was only one silhouette coming towards them.
  2. That silhouette was fairly taller than either of their friends.
  3. That silhouette totally had four arms.



 

Emerald said it first, “I don’t think that’s Carny and Aqua.”

Magnetite sighed heavily as he identified the purple gem off in the distance, sliding back down to safety, “You did tell them to come  _together_.”

Emerald flailed and fell back behind the protection of the snow mound, “I didn’t mean like that!”

Three snowballs whizzed over their heads and into the distance.

“What’s the matter?” Charoite’s voice inquired, a loud voice that combined Aquamarine's flair for the dramatic and Carnelian's boundless confidence, “Edmerald’s text said that there was something  _very_   _important_  for us to see out here.”

Magnenite pinched the bridge of his nose and hissed, “Could you have worded it any more _suspiciously_?”

Emerald shrugged helplessly, “Probably?”

A snowball slammed into their barricade hard enough to cause the whole mound to shudder. Magnetite was afraid for a second the whole thing would collapse.

“Come on out!” the fusion demanded, “Face your inevitable defeat head on! Make it worth my while!”

Magnetite and Emerald looked at each other. It was a solemn, knowing look that said so much with no words between them. If they were going to go down here, they would go down _fighting_. They both grabbed a snowball from the pile and looked to each other one last time. They nodded at each other with finality, aware of the fate that awaited them on the other side of the snow mound. They both gripped their snowballs right in their hands, and, together, jumped over their last bastion of safety.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA **AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH**!!!!”

Magnetite was immediately smacked in the face with a snowball. It was thrown with enough force to knock him back and he landed on the other side of the snow mound, dazed. He closed his eyes and groaned, his head hazy.

“ _Hematite! Wake up, come on!”_

“Who…?” Magnetite frowned, straining his ears to hear.

“ _We know you’re in there! Please, Hematite! Fight him! You can overpower him if you just fight! You’re strong enough, I know you are!“_

“What…?”

“When? Where?” he heard Emerald finish, his voice coming from somewhere to his left.

“Oh man, did she really hit him that hard?” That was…Carnelian?

“I told you fusing for something like a snowball fight was a bad idea,” Aquamarine chastised quietly.

“Cheaters…” Magnetite muttered. There were a couple gasps.

“You’re not dead!” Emerald cheered, grinning as Magnetite opened his eyes, “We got worried when you didn’t get up.” he shot a look at the other two gems present. Carnelian and Aquamarine looked away sheepishly.

“So… you ok?” Carnelian asked, looking at Magnetite apologetically, “We really didn’t mean to hit you that hard, I swear.”

“I’m fine… just a little disoriented,” Magnetite said, waving her concerns off as he sat up. Something nagged at his mind relentlessly and he looked to his friends, “Do you guys know a Hematite?”

The three other gems exchanged looks.

“Hematite?” Aquamarine asked.

“Isn’t that Jeff’s gemsona?” Carnelian asked.

“Nah, his gemsona’s name’s a lot longer than that,” Aquamarine corrected, looking to Magnetite with a frown, “Should we know a Hematite?”

The silence seemed to echo through the vast expanse of snow and a chilly feeling Magnetite knew didn’t belong to winter creeped through him, seeped into him.

“No.. no, there’s no reason you should know any Hematites.”

 

* * *

 

Magnetite sat in his bed, covers around his shoulders and knees pulled up to his chest. He stared silently at the wall ahead of him, the urge to sleep fleeting and lost despite its status as an ingrained habit. The moon illuminated his bedroom, casting shadows and playing tricks on his eyes. Somewhere off in the distance he swore he heard a wolf howl, but knew there were no wolves in the vicinity of the town. If he was in a different sort of mood he might appreciate how beautiful the summer night sky was, but for now he was resigning himself to a nap tomorrow afternoon.

Magnetite couldn’t sleep and had given up trying hours ago. Every part of him screamed to move; to stop sitting idly and do something. But he couldn’t move. Really, he didn’t want to move. He felt somewhere deep in his chest that any rash actions would lead to nothing but regret, and it scared him. Like there was an unnamed catastrophe on the horizon. Magnetite curled in closer to himself, pulling the blankets around in a protective cocoon. Surely if he waited until the sun rose, everything would be fine? He’d wake up and everything would be normal. No more voices. No more losing himself. Everything would be fine. He just had to wait for morning.

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news,” Magnetite stiffened immediately at the familiar female voice, “But morning isn’t coming.”

Magnetite shivered and hid his face in his knees, hoping if he ignored her she’d get bored and go away.

“Are you really not done playing this game yet?” the woman with the bandages asked, shaking her head as she floated closer to the bed, “You don’t think you can hide here forever, do you?”

“Who says I can’t?” Magnetite mumbled. In an instant his blanket was ripped away and he regretted everything. He let out a yell and raced to look at the woman, falling back on his arms. What he found staring back at him would likely haunt his dreams for months. A single, large eye stared out from the bandages, leering at him.

“I do.” the woman stated in a voice that echoed and resounded through the room. Her voice was full of authority and power and Magnetite found himself scared for his life.

In an instant he was off the bed, tripping on his blanket as he went, and he raced through the door. The house was dead quiet this time of night and all Magnetite could hear was his own panicked breathing. He skidded through the living room and dashed to his parents’ bedroom door, slamming it open.

“Mom!” he called, terrified. An empty bedroom sat before him and Max took a tentative step in, “…M-Mom?”

“She’s not here.” the bandaged woman said. Magnetite jumped and whirled around to face her, backing up even further into the empty room, eyes wide and terrified, “She never was. But you know that, don’t you?” she asked, staring at him as she floated closer. Her very presence made everything seem darker.

Magnetite shook his head furiously, “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” he cried out.

The woman clicked her tongue in annoyance, “Yes you do,” she stated, “Don’t you think it’s about time you stopped being so selfish?”

“You’re not making any sense!” Magnetite yelled, frustration in his voice, “Stop whatever it is you’re doing and bring her back! Bring her BACK!”

“…I’m afraid I can’t do that, Magnetite,” she said, drifting farther into the room as she spoke. The windows grew dark and shadows slithered at their feet, “Not even I can bring back the dead.”

Magnetite froze, “… w-what?” he asked in a small voice.

“Your mother is dead, Magnetite. She has been for a long time,” the woman said, stopping just a little ways in front of the boy. Her eye closed, “You need to let her go and wake up. This isn’t real. None of this is real. You know it. I know it. Stop pretending.”

“No, YOU STOP!” Magnetite reached up and pulled his weapon out, the bat gripped tightly in his hand. The room faded away around them into blackness, everything dissolving slowly. Magnetite shook like a leaf and clenched his eyes shut, “Just stop it! Whatever you’re doing stop it!” he demanded.

“No,” the woman replied simply, “You’ve been asleep long enough. Your friends need you. You need to wake up.”

Magnetite dropped his weapon and clamped his hands around his ears, trying in vain to block out the woman’s voice, “N-No! I can’t! I won’t!” he shook his head furiously, feeling hot tears stream down his face, “I c-can’t!”

“You can and you will,” the woman said with a tone of finality, “What’s happening out there and what could happen are all inevitable, no matter how much you hide, no matter how long you try and pretend,” her words came out shortly, holding no sympathy within them, “Your friends can’t do this without you. They’ve been fighting for you, trying to reach you. Certainly you’ve heard them?”

Magnetite’s trembling stilled, and he slowly opened his eyes, “Heard them…?” he asked, looking at the woman intently.

She nodded, “Listen closely now and you’ll hear them.”

Magnetite lowered his hands from his ears and looked around them, listening intently. It looked like the world had been torn out apart, leaving nothing but a void in its place. Magnetite swallowed dryly and tried to listen. Focus came to him slowly. Concentration was a hard thing to reach.

“ _–ematite!”_

A shock went through him.

“ _… please….can you… please!”_

“ _We’re here… fighting… wake up already!”_

Magnetite looked around them, trying his best to find the source of the voices, “Guys? Guys! I can hear you!” he shouted.

“ _Friends… always friends… no matter what…st wake up!”_

“I can hear you!” he looked hopelessly to the bandaged woman, “How do I let them know I can hear them?”

“ _Magnetiiiiiiiiiiiiiite! We know you’re in there! Whatever this guy’s told you is a bunch of lies!”_

“ _ YOU’RE TOO STRONG TO GO DOWN AT THE HANDS OF A CHUMP LIKE THIS! Stop making us wait and get out here already!”_

Magnetite marched over to her, “How can I help them? Please, anything I can do!”

“ _We can’t do this without you Hematite… no, Magnetite!_

“ _I believe in you Magnenite!”_

“I’m very glad you’ve finally come around,” Boss Leader said, a smile in her voice, “All you need to do is blink.”

“Blink?” Magnetite frowned.

“Blink," she instructed simply.

Magnetite looked at her skeptically for several seconds. Finally, he took a very deep breath and closed his eyes.

There was a very small whoosh of air.

The gem opened his eyes again and found he was floating. Above him the void stretched upwards into infinity, dotted occasionally with a flash a red or blue if he looked close enough. With a bit of effort Magnetite managed to flip himself around so his stomach was facing downwards, and for second he struggled to find his balance in this new position. Moving was very difficult for some reason, he noted, as he looked around his new surroundings. Everything, as it turned out, was not just eternal darkness.

Far, far below him he could distinctly make out two, little squares. Red and blue, they were opposite each other with a fair amount of distance between them. In particular he seemed to be floating above the blue square which, quite alarmingly, seemed to be growing closer with each moment. Magnetite flailed a bit as he tried to right himself so that his feet were pointed downwards, but it was no easy task. He gave up after a minute or two and sighed, letting himself go limp. It was a very slow trip down.

“Hm?” he frowned, staring intently at the red square. Though still a considerable distance away, he was starting to be able to make out details. For instance, there was a small, black… something sitting at the center of the red square. Memories raced through his mind as to why that was significant and why he should care, and it barely took a second for Magnetite to find the memory he was looking for, “ _Lodestone_.”

He saw the small, black form on the red square begin to move and saw it turn. A pair of bright, white glowing eyes stared at him from the depths of the creature’s face, the only particularly notable thing that Magnetite could make out. Magnetite quickly found himself in freefall and yelled out in a panic.

He stopped falling right before hitting the blue square, his feet just above and out of reach of the platform. That’s what it was, he realized quickly. A large, rectangular platform that stretched down far, far below them and came back around to the other side to form the platform that Lodestone stood firmly on. Of course they were on top of a magnet, what else was Magnetite expecting?

“Go back to sleep,” Lodestone ordered. Magnetite stared across the abyss at them, trying to identify just what he was looking at. Lodestone was small, very small, and seemed more like a living shadow than a gem. He couldn’t make out anything about the other gem besides the bright, glowing eyes staring him down.

“No,” Magnetite refused bluntly.

“I said  **go back to sleep** ,” Lodestone ordered again, standing up. Magnetite felt himself shift and the words hit him like a punch to the chest. He floated a little farther away from the blue square, “Your mother is waiting for you there, you know.”

Magnetite gasped quietly, floating just a bit farther up. His eyes suddenly felt very heavy, “…No,” he murmured quietly, shaking his head, “She’s not… I don’t want to…”

“Don’t be absurd, child. That world is everything you’ve ever wanted, everything you’ll ever want,” Lodestone said coolly, shaking his head, “Of course you want to go back.”

Magnetite shook his head again, this time with a little more force. He inched closer to the blue square, “No… no I dont. None of it’s real. It’s all fake.” he said, lifting his head and glaring across at Lodestone.

“And what’s wrong with fake?” the other gem inquired, “What’s so good about the real world?”

“It’s where… my friends are…” Magnetite stated defiantly. His foot brushed against the blue of the platform.

Lodestone scoffed, “Your friends? They’ll never accept you the way you are, you know that,” Lodestone pointed out in distaste, “You’re not Hematite, after all. Why would they ever care about Magnetite?”

Magnetite’s determination wavered a little and he floated away, “That’s…that isn’t true!” he snapped, “They’re out there right now fighting! Trying to get me back!”

“Trying to get Hematite back,” Lodestone corrected patiently, pityingly, his glowing eyes staring piercingly ahead at Magnetite, “You’re a means to an end to them at this point, so why bother with them? What point is there when you know they’ll toss you to the side once they’re done using you?”

Magnetite clenched his fists, “Because they’re my  _friends_.”

“You keep throwing that word around.  _Friends_ ,” Lodestone said, rolling their eyes, “Your _friends_ can’t even get your name right. And what do you think happens after you save them? That things go back to normal?” Magnetite nodded hesitantly and Lodestone gave a harsh laugh, “Don’t be ridiculous, you’ll never be normal.”

Magnetite flinched, floating upwards.

“I put together that dream just for you, you know,” Lodestone said unhappily, like Magnetite had rejected a present, “A perfect world, just for you. A world where nothing will ever hurt, nothing is ever wrong… you can still go back there, you know,” Lodestone compelled softly, “To where your mother is making breakfast. There was a slumber party last night, you know. All of your friends were there, just for you,” their eyes narrowed, “Just for Magnetite. I can take you back there… you just have to let me…”

Magnetite floated quietly, as if silent in thought. An eternity passed in the span of a second before Magnetite looked straight at Lodestone and said, “No.”

Lodestone sighed in exasperation, “Why do you have to be so stubborn? I’m trying to  _help_  you, you know.”

“No, you’re not,” Magnetite argued, reaching up towards his gem, “You’re trying to help yourself.”

Lodestone’s eyes widened in alarm, “What do you think you’re doing?”

The gem on Magnetite’s head glowed brightly as his bat emerged from it. He gripped it tightly in both hands, raising it over his head, “Taking a note from Iron Pyrite’s book.”

“You idiot! You’ll kill yourself!” Lodestone snapped, standing at the edge of the red platform. They looked like they wanted to leap off and stop him, but were being stopped by unseen forces, “You can’t live without me! If we unfuse, you will  _die_.” Lodestone reminded him.

“I think I’d rather that than stay fused with you another second,” Magnetite said spitefully, swinging his bat down with all of his strength, “I’ve never been a fan of puppeteers.”

Magnetite’s bat hit the magnet platform like a bat hitting glass. Blue cracks erupted from the point of impact and radiated downwards and outwards, creating blue cracks in the void surrounding them. The cracks spread quickly, taking on a red hue as they reached the side Lodestone was on. Magnetite crashed through the remnants of the blue platform and send shards of it flying through the abyss. The blue shards blurred out of focus as he fell, deeper and deeper into their mixed consciousness. His limbs felt heavy and he ragdolled through the void like a puppet with cut strings.

Bright light erupted below him and he closed his eyes, ready for whatever awaited him on the other side of that light.

Discord ripped through the fusion that once was Hematite, tearing it apart from the inside out.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it! Even though we're all that far into the AU yet, I felt like writing endgame stuff for my interpretation of things and figured...well, why not? If you're interested at all in getting in on this madness, please feel free to stop by the AU blog over at paranaturalrocks.tumblr.com~


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